You all know that when we were in high school every one of us thought we’d never get old. We never thought about riding too fast in our cars or even cutting the lights off to see how far we could go without them. When we could get some beer or whiskey, it never even crossed our minds if we would get home safe…we just never thought we wouldn’t make the trip.
In the forty plus years since graduation, a few of my classmates have gone into eternity ahead of me. That is also something that I never considered until we all began our so-called “middle-age” years. Now that those years seem to be coming and going faster than I ever thought they would, it seems that there are fewer friends from high school left than there used to be. Even though life got in the way of most of us getting together even for a visit sometimes, we still considered each other friends because most of us in the class of ’79 had come through school together.
The best part of being friends is that we can get together and begin to catch up almost where we left off. Except for those who are absent from us right now. I pray that one day there will be a great reunion in heaven. I also pray that all of you will be there. Seek Jesus and give Him your heart so that we can have a great reunion there one day soon. Thanks for all of the memories.
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. Psalms 51:1-2 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/psa.51.1-2.KJV
Why did I put the word stupidity in the title? Because we are. Compared to the wisdom of God our wisdom is stupid. But…God loves us in spite of our shortcomings. Seek His wisdom today and walk with Him until He comes for His Bride, the church.
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 1 Corinthians 13:1 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/1co.13.1.KJV
Have you ever wondered this? I have. Many times in life I have asked this in anguish and anger because of something that has happened in my life. That was before I truly gave my life and my heart to Jesus. I was blaming Him and angry with Him before I knew Him. He is not the cause of our problems but He is the Solver of those problems…every problem. He has never left His creation alone. God didn’t make the universe and then run away to the farthest corner and go to sleep.
God does not sleep or slumber. He knows what is going on in the universe and in your mind right now. That is why the Holy Spirit inhabits each Christian’s heart. So that He can teach you what you need to know and what you don’t know. God is present in your heart in the Person of the Holy Spirit and He will hear every word of prayer and He will know your needs even before you say anything!
There are times when He does put us through trials to shape us and teach us to be better than we would be if He did not. Why? Because sometimes it takes a trial for us to really learn what He is trying to teach us. There are also trials which will make us more like Jesus when we rely on Him to get through them. The early church had to go through many hard trials but it grew even more through them.
God loves each of us with a love that we cannot understand. He has loved each of us even before He said, “Let there be Light!”. How can He do that? Because He exists outside of our time and space. He can see our lives from beginning to end and for Him time doesn’t mean anything. He can still look at the Garden of Eden. He can see Abraham about to sacrifice his son Isaac. He can also see our time today and the events which will happen during the Tribulation which is foretold in the book of Revelation.
Please seek Him as your Savior because eternity is a very long, long time to regret a decision from this life that could’ve changed your eternal destination. Think about it.
God is always near and He will never leave you…ever!
For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Philippians 2:13 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/php.2.13.KJV
Well…it depends upon what a person is being saved from? Salvation can be many things to many people. You can be saved from physical death by a seat belt in a car or an air bag or both. You could be saved from a life of being filthy rich by your circumstances or by God’s grace, whichever you prefer. Salvation, for a Christian, is being saved from the punishment of hell that we deserve but by God’s grace our faith in Jesus atones for all of our sins and allows us to come before Him with no blemish of sin on our person. You could receive salvation from drowning by someone throwing a lifeline with a float attached to it.
So you see, salvation can come to each of us in different forms and at different times but the one that most of us are seeking is our salvation from the punishment that we deserve for our sins. God is our Creator and our Savior which is why He came to live as a human for about thirty three years. He came so that He would know the temptations that we experience not to judge us for those but to call us into a life with Him. Sometimes the call that we hear from Him comes when we are young and sometimes we don’t hear it until we are a bit older.
There is one illustration that I would like to give here which points out the reality that our Savior gives to us and to no others in Creation.
“The life of Christianity consists of possessive pronouns” says Martin Luther. It is one thing to say, “Christ is a Saviour”; it is quite another thing to say, “He is my Saviour and my Lord.” The devil can say the first; the true Christian alone can say the second. Resource, July/August, 1990.
To claim our salvation we must come to a realization that we need Jesus in our heart to save us. God does that when His Spirit reaches down and touches your heart, breaks it and re-molds it into a heart that is ready for His gift. Sometimes this is painful but sometimes it is something that we have sought for a long time and in that instance it feels so good to get the burden of years of carrying the guilt and the shame with us all of the time.
Only a Christian can say “Christ is my Savior and my Lord”. If you can’t confidently say that is feel in your heart that it is true then you may want to seek the Lord for confirmation of your salvation. Do you believe it or are you just saying words? God came down as a helpless baby to live as we live so that He could identify with every emotion and temptation that we have. He saw and healed many diseases while He was teaching His disciples about the Kingdom of God and that He has healing for every disease if we will believe in Him for our healing.
Some people only say the words. Some people read the Bible but they don’t believe a word of it. Its just a book of stories and the history of the Jewish people. It is so old that it doesn’t apply to us today.
All of the statements in the short paragraph above are false with parts of truth in them as well. “Now, hold on preacher! The Bible is the Word of God, it can’t be a lie!” The Bible is the history of the Jewish people but some people read it like a book. Some just think it is too old to apply to us now, and there are many people who truly don’t believe a word in it came from God.
Why is that important? Because, God inspired the prophets and kings to write the words which make up the Torah, which is our Old Testament. The apostles wrote their accounts of Jesus’ ministry and Paul wrote most of the prison epistles from a Roman prison but even they were under the influence of the Holy Spirit. If the Word, the Bible, is inspired by God and His Spirit, then it is true and there is no other way to interpret it.
Finally, salvation comes to us by faith in the Holy Spirit which convicts us of our need of salvation. Then He points us in the direction of Jesus Christ Who is our Savior and Lord to believe in Him for our salvation to become real and genuine. After that we should read God’s Word to know what we should do with all of this joy and grace that we’ve been given!
Jesus didn’t have to save the thief on the cross beside Him but He did it out of love because that was the reason He came for…to seek and to save the lost. Just the same as He does for us today. When you come to church on Sunday if you are not a Christian yet you are likely thinking “What am I doing here?”. Most of us wonder about the reason that we are in church but when God’s Spirit has touched you and let you know that you need Jesus in your life, there is very little which could’ve stopped you from being in church that day.
I don’t mean to say that it is an irresistible call but it truly is. You might skate by this Sunday but one day soon God will get you into a church to hear the gospel preached. Because you will be drawn to Jesus at that time. God didn’t have to send His Son to bring salvation to mankind but He did it because of His love for us. Will everyone be saved? No, because there are many in the world who won’t hear that small voice calling them or they will ignore it until it goes away.
Don’t be the person who has heard God speaking to your heart, asking you to come to Jesus but you didn’t feel like it or you had something else you wanted to do. Sometimes God will keep calling until you answer the call but sometimes it is just too late. An accident or a stroke or heart attack will take you from this world when you least expect it. Not one person knows when their “time is up” until it happens so if you haven’t made your decision yet then it is too late at that point.
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Proverbs 3:5-6 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/pro.3.5-6.KJV
How many of these have been celebrated since Jesus went back to heaven? The Jubilee year is the year after the 49th and it is complicated because of the Jewish calendar but for all practical purposes it is the 50th year. If you divide the past two thousand years by fifty you get 40 and if you bring it forward to the year we are in now, 2020, it is 40.4. What does all of this mean? It’s God’s math and I can’t tell you exactly what it means. In 1967 Jerusalem was brought back under Jewish rule. It had been one Jubilee since the Jews had been allowed back into Palestine as it was called and that happened in 1917 at the end of World War 1.
Fast forward to the 21st century and 2017 is a Jubilee year since Jerusalem had been brought back under Jewish control. Forty is a significant number in God’s Word, seven is also a significant number, 49 is a significant number, so where am I going with this? I’m not sure but since scientists usually take an answer out to the second digit past the decimal this year would actually be 40.40. Does that mean anything? I’m not sure but if I were you, I would be making very sure that you know Jesus as your Savior and especially make sure that He knows you!
No matter what you may have heard about God not caring about you, the verse in the picture above shows very clearly that He does love you and me and everyone else. It is our choice to believe in the One Who paid the price of our salvation and atonement or not. I pray that you will seek Him out as your Savior. Thank you for reading this little bit that His Spirit prompted me to write.
The Living Message of Christ 